Since landing an investment of $2MM in her startup, Cultura Ambassador & Advisory Board member of SVLatino Laura I. Gómez has been interviewed by many but this interview with CNN is her most entertaining in a while.

Share your thoughts on this success story here or via our social media platforms

Be part of GourMex SV and live an extraordinary evening that celebrates a rich Mexican heritage in the culinary arts. Silicon Valley Latino is proud to be a media sponsor so we invite you to come out and Savor the mouth-watering creations from some of the trendiest restaurants in the Bay Area. Come meet the Mexican chefs behind the magic of it all. Mingle amongst 400 attendees as you enjoy premium wines from hand-selected vintages by their Mexican winemakers. Delight with the time-honored tradition of all grand fiestas and revel with company. Lift your glass and say cheers with Mezcal and Tequila.

Live GourMex SV 2016 at the San Jose Museum of Arts and sample from 30 Bay Area Restaurants and Beverage Purveyors.

Celebrate with us the many contributions of the Mexican community throughout the Bay Area.

What is a sponsored experience?
One of the examples that comes to mind from the “real” world, is the Sephora makeup session: When a customer walks into the store to get a free makeup session using the products from brands Sephora want to promote, that’s a sponsored experience.

How can we create sponsored experiences in the mobile world?
Advertising needs to evolve. Smartphone screens are very small (even though they have grown into phablets), and display ads take too much of that screen real estate. Hersh Choksi, VP Products & Strategy at Flightly, an exclusive Twitter advertising partner, agrees: “Mobile has been much faster to adopt native advertising, which aligns more with the idea of a sponsored experience rather than an interruptive ad.”

In today’s digital world, we see a shift towards convenience and instant gratification. Sponsored experiences can be part of this mobile content, and would provide users a convenient experience on their smartphones without having to leave the mobile app or browser experience they are currently in. So how can we provide meaningful experiences for brands that relate with users?

Here are some examples and use cases for sponsored experiences in the mobile world:

1. Meeting Locations
Many of us use our smartphones to coordinate when and where we are going to meet with colleagues and friends. When we are searching for that cool restaurant or bar, wouldn’t it make sense for either the location apps or restaurants themselves to pay for placement right there, at your fingertips?

2. Transportation
Once we decide on the place and time, we need to get there! Why couldn’t there be a sponsored transportation experience at this time to take an Uber or a Lyft? This could be sponsored or subsidized by the transportation company, or for the transportation company could pay for the opportunity to surface at this time in the user’s screen.

3. Music for Fitness
Let’s assume you are one of those people that track their physical activity while exercising; using apps to track your ride or map your run, etc. Let’s also assume you like to listen to some music to “pump you up” and energize you while exercising. Today you need to open your fitness apps and then go and open another music app to find that music. What if Pandora or Spotify would offer you a sponsored “Work out music” option within the fitness app itself?

I wanted to show you through the examples above how sponsored experiences can be meaningful to users and not be considered interruptive.

Silicon Valley Latino Cultura Ambassador and Advisory Board Member Laura I. Gómez is part of an amazing team of women who are tackling the Diversity Issue in Tech. Here is yet another article highlighting who they are and what they are shooting for.

How are you taking part in battling this issue? Share your actions and thoughts here.

We invite you to learn about this wonderful Independent Television Service (ITVS) that brings to light stories and points of view that are not covered by mass media. As we, Silicon Valley Latino, are accustomed to highlighting and promoting the positives that Latin@s do within the community we wanted to share this organizations contributions and their similar Mission as ours.

Mission Statement

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) brings independently-produced, high-quality public broadcast and new media programs to local, national and international audiences. The independent producers who create ITVS programs take creative risks, tackle complex issues and express points of view seldom explored in the mass media. ITVS programs enrich the cultural landscape with the voices and visions of underrepresented communities, and reflect the interests and concerns of a diverse society.

Cultura Ambassador & Silicon Valley Latino Advisory Board Member, Jesse Martinez, has been invited to present at this year’s CGI 2016 in Atlanta along with several dignitaries, Corporate & Non Profit Executives and past Presidents of the United States. We congratulate him and all of the work he leads!

With over 400 million members and 2 new members joining every second, LinkedIn is the largest professional network and has become one of the top recruiting sources for employers. At the recent sold out San Jose State University Latino Alumni Network (SJSU LAN) LinkedIn Networking Event – “Rock Your Profile” attendees were able to learn how to make their profile stand out from other candidates straight from the source.

Teresa Leija, Associate Program Manager, presented a step-by-step approach to build and expand your networks with your LinkedIn profile. During the presentation, she stressed the importance of how using every feature will increase the views to your profile.

Adding a professional photo increases profile views by 14x

Including a summary increases profile views by 10x

Including work experience increases profile views by 12x

Adding volunteer experience and causes increases profile views by 6x

You get the picture- the more you use LinkedIn’s profile features the more views to your profile. It is so important that you don’t leave anything blank or empty.

Here are a few more ways to really ROCK your profile:

Spend some time really crafting your headline. It should explain what you do, show your passion and value. Spend just as much time, if not more, creating a compelling summary that focuses on your career accomplishments and aspirations. The summary should be less than 740 words and include keywords not buzzwords!

Make your profile dynamic and visually appealing with presentations, photos and videos that tell your professional story. If you don’t have any media to share, Teresa suggested adding a general presentation about your company and utilizing SlideShare to get ideas for presentation decks and infographics.

Add skills that are a mix of high-level and niche skills and try obtaining endorsements for those skills.

Complete the volunteer experience section of your profile. Teresa stated that 41% of hiring managers see volunteer work just as valuable as professional experience.

Follow LinkedIn influencers that resonate with you such as Arianna Huffington, Richard Branson, and Gwen Stefani to name a few

Share links, articles and quotes at least twice a week. Try adding a question in your comment to spark conversation and reaction.

Take advantage of the LinkedIn publishing tool to post your own articles. Kathy Goss, Diversity Recruiting Lead, noted that your posts are a way to deeply explore topics that matter to you and an opportunity for potential employers and recruiters to know more about you.

On top of the networking and profile tips, another great part of this event was that the attendees had a glimpse of the LinkedIn company culture by being onsite and listening to the panelists from the internal employee resource group HOLA (Hispanics of LinkedIn Alliance) moderated by Sean Cevera, Diversity & Recruiting Champion. The panelists included Matthew Mendiola, Talent Solutions Support Specialist, Nicole Prairie, Customer Success Manager, and Andrew Trevino, Recruiter. They shared their unique experiences which in turn led to their current positions at LinkedIn. For example, Nicole discussed leveraging her Portuguese language skills as she navigated her career path including working abroad in Germany. Andrew talked about how he transferred his recruiting efforts at the UC Berkeley campus for a recruiter position at LinkedIn. Matthew shared the importance of being a part of the conversations about corporate culture and making connections in your career.

Your LinkedIn profile is not only a way for potential employers and recruiters to find you but also a great way to be known for what you do and strengthen your reputation. Be sure to take advantage of all the LinkedIn tools and tips in this article to ROCK your profile!

Silicon Valley Latino is proud to share the news that this Chilean-Mexican-Swedish startup Cornershop App for raising USD 6.7 million this past week from some big players here in the valley and overseas for their operation in Chile & Mexico.
We ask where do you see more money going to in the near future? Latino Startups who focus on all of America seems to be the growing trend as Latin America hosts more than 500 mm people. That is a big market!!

Silicon Valley Latino was a media partner to Cisco’s Hispanic Heritage Month event a few months ago. While there, we had the opportunity to interview several Conexion (Cisco’s Latino Employee Resource Organization) Board Members about the group’s purpose, strategies and impact.

We are proud to have many of our Cultura Ambassadors lead Conexion’s efforts and impact in the community through many programs such as “Escuela” and “High School Career Fairs”. Additionally, this featured video showcases Conexion’s multiple values, from an innovative relationships, products, and culture perspective, as well as through talent pipeline and strategic community outreach.

“Conexion plays an integral part in Cisco’s Inclusion and Collaboration strategy. It’s about creating an incubator for innovation, best practices, and collaboration across the globe” says Maria Medrano, Inclusion and Collaboration Strategist, Cisco.

We would also like to thank Anne-Marie Azzi and Beatriz Medina Pratt for their exemplary leadership to Conexion for the past two and a half years. During their tenure, Conexion received numerous awards and recognition, such as Silicon Valley Latino ERG of the Year 2014, Top ERG Award by Latina Style and HITEC, the Hispanic IT Executive Council in 2014. Would also like to give a special thanks to Conexion Executive Sponsors, Guillermo Diaz Jr, Senior Vice President and CIO and Yvette Kanouff, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cloud Solutions. Silicon Valley Latino would also like to give a warm welcome to the new Conexion co-presidents, Juan Del Villar and Oscar Gomez, we look forward to collaborating with them as they step into their new roles.

From a personal perspective it’s been a true pleasure to see so many of our Cultura Ambassadors grow professionally and climb the corporate ladder. A few we would like to recognize today are Guillermo Diaz Jr., Ileana Rivera, Anne-Marie Azzi, Beatriz Medina Pratt, Katty Coulson, Esmeralda Barriga, and Francisco Espana.

We look forward to following Conexion and featuring more of their work in 2016!